This application claims the priority of German patent 198 16 381.9, filed Apr. 11, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a brake disk for a motor vehicle particularly consisting of a fiber-reinforced material, which comprises two disk elements with ribs forming air ducts, which can be connected with one another.
From German Patent Document DE-OS 1 940 669, a brake disk is known which has two disk elements which, for the connection, have holding devices on intermediate ribs which form air ducts.
It is an object of the invention to provide a brake disk which comprises disk elements which consist of a fiber-reinforced material and which can be connected with one another in a simple manner without the use of holding devices.
According to the invention, this object has been achieved by providing a brake disk for a motor vehicle, comprising two disk elements with ribs defining air ducts, which can be connected with one another, wherein the ribs of the disk elements have mutually corresponding hook-type connections on opposite front surfaces.
Certain principal advantages achieved by of the invention are that the disk halves of the brake disk are constructed of a fiber-reinforced material with a special structure of the connection surfaces on the front surfaces and/or side surfaces of the ribs for the air ducts. These connection surfaces form a so-called hook-in or interlocking connection, whereby the joining of the two disk elements can take place in a mutually centered and form-locking manner.
For this purpose, the connection surfaces of the individual ribs of each disk element can be provided with steps which can be fitted into one another, or the connection of the opposed ribs takes place by means of a groove/tongue connection or by way of mutually corresponding indentations and elevations, as, for example, by way of a V-shaped indentation and a correspondingly constructed opposite V-shaped molded-on portion (projection).
The steps have approximately a depth corresponding to half the rib thickness and end preferably at a distance from the central opening of the brake disk ring or the rib base.
The steps in the ribs can be alternately arranged such that at least one left-side step is followed by a right-side step. Several identical left-side steps can also follow several identical right-side steps.
By means of this alternate arrangement of the steps, the disk elements can be arranged in a precise manner with respect to one another for the connection. The connection of the ribs takes place, for example, in a high-temperature furnace in which the two disk halves are intimately connected with one another by a so-called gluing-together or the like of the fiber-reinforced material.
The ribs of the air ducts may have different lengths, according to the invention, one shorter rib respectively being provided between two continuous ribs. All ribs have a hook-type connection. In addition, perforations, such as bores and the like, can be provided in the disk elements, particularly in the friction surfaces.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.